Cuidando la Alimentación del Recién Nacido

Isaiah 55:6–9; Philippians 1:20–24, 27; Matthew 20:1–16

A clue to how one might read this Sunday’s Gospel passage from Mat- thew lies in the final sentence: ‘Thus the last will be first and the first, last’. As a comment on the parable that Jesus has just told, it implies that God will overturn human expectations and rankings—something that we all indulge in at one time or other. What is interesting is that this comment effectively repeats the one that Jesus makes at the end of the preceding chapter. When Peter asks him what ‘we’ who have left everything will get Jesus assures the twelve that they will be richly rewarded for their loy- alty by being given a privileged position in the kingdom (judges). What is more, all those who have left all for the sake of Jesus’ name will be richly rewarded. The chapter ends with Jesus saying ‘But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first’. Is this a veiled warning against assuming that in becoming a disciple one has thereby left everything and so is en- titled to the reward? Perhaps the presence of this saying before and after the parable is inviting us to read it in relation to those who are disciples and those who are perceived as outside.

The workers who are engaged early in the day (about 6 am) have an agreement or promise with their boss about their pay, the reward of their labours (so Peter and the apostles). Other workers are hired throughout the day, at 9am, 12noon, 3pm and finally at 5pm. Significantly, the parable is really only concerned with the relationship between the ‘last comers’ and those we might call the ‘early birds’ and this suggests a link to the topic of the preceding discourse and the saying about the first and the last. The last comers receive the same amount (reward) from the boss as the early birds. At this point in the parable we have its three key players: early birds, last comers and the boss and we are invited to think about each within the context of Matthew’s Gospel.

Let us start with the boss—God. It is significant that God keeps going out to look for workers, even at the last hour. What is the point of this?

A136 Sunday Matters Year A

You do not take on staff just as you are about to close the shop for the day and just because they have not been employed. It is not good business sense, and it is even worse business sense to pay them a full day’s wages. Such a business will either go broke or is being run on quite different lines and the boss has resources well beyond our reckoning, with a different at- titude to the normal ones.

Next we turn to the last comers. From their point of view they were about to miss out on work, and here they are spending a brief period in the vineyard yet getting full pay. How many times have we heard people lament that they have left it too late to be reconciled to God or to make something of their life? This parable teaches that we can never be too late with God, or too early. The prophecy from Isaiah shares this theology, assuring sinners not to think that it is too late, that it is all over between them and God. The mistake is to transfer their sense of being too late onto God but, as the prophecy says, ‘my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways not your ways’. For God one moment of repentance reaps a full reward because ‘our God is rich in forgiving’, a generous God as the par- able makes clear. This is the sense in which we can truly say that a moment becomes an eternity.

As for the early birds, their mistake is to think that time spent on the job is the main thing rather than being chosen for the job. It is good to celebrate long loyal service and jubilees as long as these do not lead us to think that these win God’s love in return. We can only love God because God has first loved us, has chosen us. Our love of God is a consequence of being loved by God, not a pre–requisite for it. What the early birds and the last comers share, and what should unite them, is that both have been chosen to work in the vineyard.

In being so chosen, each worker should be willing to do things God’s way because it will be the best way. This can take some learning. In the reading from Philippians Paul admits that he is caught between two de- sires. One (and it seems to be the principal one) is to be free of this world and to be one with Christ in the resurrection. This would bring about his perfection and, after all, this is what Christ desires for him. But his perfec- tion involves being ‘like Christ’ who gave himself in the service of others. Hence, an integral part of Paul being made perfect is doing what Jesus did and desiring to do it as well as he can—serving his brothers and sisters faithfully. If it is Christ’s will that he remain ‘in this body’ to continue working as a disciple, then so be it. Paul is honest, admitting that he can- not set aside his own self–interest while serving his brothers and sisters.

A137

Mark O’Brien OP

But he is content to live with unresolved tension and leave its resolution in God’s hands. We talk about selfless service and it is a great ideal, but can we—indeed should we—ever claim to act without self–interest? As Jesus says, ‘you shall love your neighbour as you love yourself’.

A139